NC Political Connections By News 14 Carolina reporter Tim Boyum
(At my house, I cannot get this channel anymore, as we were forced to give up cable due to poor bandwidth issues and move to the better performing Directv. Sorry Tim.)

Fern Shubert Speaks for UsPublished by admirers of former Senator Fern Shubert. Shubert served the ole' North State well, until stepping down from her office to make a run for Governor in 2004. While she is greatly missed from office, she knows where the "bodies are buried" and is still found digging up the truth.

ARRA News ServiceNews for social, fiscal & national security conservatives who believe in God, family & country. We seek to uphold traditional family values, Republican principles & ideals, limited government, free markets to promote innovation, & individual freedom. The ARRA News Service is an outreach of the Arkansas Republican Assembly.

Crystal Clear ConservativeBlogger Krystal Weeks writes about N. Virginia and DC metro area politics, as well as national issues. Check her out!

Cuba Generation YThis 30-something blogger publishes at great risk to show readers outside Cuba what everyday life is like inside the oppressive, Communist nation. Think you like Communism...read this blog and think again!

Smart Girl PoliticsConservative Women bloggers, and a few men, who are here to refresh you when you are thirsty.

LadyBlogA modern take on traditional women. Classier than tea service. Like Fight Club but with better hygiene. Sightly more aggro than a cucumber sandwich.

The Political BylineOne of my fellow Top Conservatives on Twitter. Check him out! He's not afraid to speak his mind. Based in the Motorcity.

Capital LettersJordan Schrader covers North Carolina government for the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Sister ToldjahNational conservative blogger who tells it like it is. She loves North Carolina and occasionally picks up items from KCC on her blog.

Called 2 ActionCheck out this site, run by Steve Noble. He's a member of the religious right and he tells the truth as he sees it. He calls himself an equal opportunity offender. Check out what he has to say!

NC PoliticsNew Bern native (and your blogger's fellow high school classmate -NBSHS '85) Steve Hale writes from Pitt County about his take on the North Carolina Political scene. Check out his blog and offer up your comments.

Dateline ObamastanCary's John Byrnes writes about national, state, and local politics. He currently serves in the Army National Guard.

Driving With One HandKevin LeCount is apparently driving with his LEFT hand, as this blog is written by my good friend who works for SEANC, the union of the NC State Employees. His wife, Heidi, works at my alma mater, Meredith and are good folks, despite their political leanings. Check them out.

February 22, 2010

Liberal website Salon.com caught up with disgraced and censured Gov Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) as he was leaving the speaker's room at CPAC. Sanford did not appear on any invitee list and your blogger wondered how he managed how to get back there, although your blogger had access. Your blogger hates any corrupt politician and Sanford is no exception.

KCC doesn't appreciate Salon's hack-job coverage of our top political meeting of the year. Sure, we conservatives are working out growth problems but we have growth! That's always a good thing.

Here is Sanford trying to leave the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Georgetown, the same hotel where your blogger stayed, compliments of Salon.com:

February 18, 2010

Watch CPAC 2010 here on Katy's Conservative Corner, North Carolina's official CPAC blogger. As long as activies are taking place, this feed will be live. Enjoy. We'll keep this post at the top of the page through Saturday evening and individual stories will be posted beneath.

February 08, 2010

Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC-13th) is the pride of the liberal wing of the NC Democrat party, but the bane of this blogger's existence. He has caused the people of this district many problems and has never found a tax hike he hasn't liked.

Aside from voting for every issue Nancy Pelosi has asked, he's now in trouble in a VA case in Pennsylvania.

Andrew Breitbart is a professional blogger, with a fine staff and a full stable of blogs. KCC considers him a personal hero. Over the weekend, he introduced former Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville, TN.

Brad Miller is the only "representative" that the North Carolina's 13th Congressional District has ever had and It's time we turned him out of office.

Turns out, there are at least three trying to do just that. Publisher/Editor Bernie Reeves recently jumped into the Republican primary, joining Navy vet and businessman Bill Randall. Businessman Dan Huffman also is in the race.

KCC will write more on this race later. Meanwhile, please click on http://www.ncgop13.org/ and donate to the 13th GOP Congressional District. This group is charged with bringing Congressman Miller back home to Raleigh and they need your help to do it. Any amount is appreciated and you can donate via the website. Please help. (Sorry, but your contributions are not tax deductible.)

Editor's Note: Your blogger is a member of the North Carolina Republican Party's State Executive Committee, representing the 13th District, at-large. Additionally, she serves as treasurer for that group. It is the only official post she holds within the Party. The 13th District needs all the help it can get to help defeat Brad Miller in the Fall. It is an all-volunteer organization.

February 01, 2010

*Congratulations to the group NC Freedom on their first anniversary. This group is not affiliated with any other group, nationally or locally, but shares related information from bloggers and associated groups with those who sign up for its mailing list. Their newsletter editor, Sharon Sbrocco, told your blogger that the first year has been productive and that she looks forward to their Convention of the People - Initiative I. Check it out here.

*KCC will be an official blogger at CPAC in Washington, as a representative from NC. Held every February, the meeting brings thousands of conservatives together to ignite their collective spirits and hear inspiring speakers.

We are extremely excited to see friends that we only see at national events, and it appears that there are a number of North Carolinians going, as well. Please say hello to us while there, if possible!

We'll also run the proceedings live on this blog, in the event. This may come in handy if you don't have access to a television during your workday, for example.

*Our friend over at the ARRA News Service in Arkansas, Dr. Bill Smith, has an excellent article on Nancy Pelosi's Food and Booze Tab. Drawn from research done at Judicial Watch, this short piece will make your cry for our once great nation. In fact, Dr. Bill's blogs are excellent and we highly recommend them all.

On a side note, Dr. Bill told this KCC that he spends so many hours per week on his blog, that he often doesn't come out of his office for days at the time. He works incredibly hard to keep the citizens of Arkansas, and the nation informed.

May 21, 2009

I respect your endorsement of Tom Fetzer. You and many others have gone "on the record" as you have felt led to do so.

But on the other hand, I am coming across more and more delegates who say "Bill, I really didn't know that much about you. I really like what you stand for, and find it difficult to see any area where we disagree."

February 25, 2009

Please enjoy this live feed, when available, of CPAC 2009, compliments of UStream and Katy's Conservative Corner.

CPAC 2009 runs from Thursday until Saturday of this week and the streams will be made available during actual conference times. The conference agenda is also available. (If you are receiving this blog post via e-mail or RSS feed, you must go to the blog post to see the actual live feed.)

January 14, 2009

I'm getting emails, phone calls and letters wondering why this blog has been off line for so long. Fact is, things have been rather crazy. Serious problems were found in our home and we only had two days notice in which to move.

So, our son and I have temporarily relocated to the beautiful beach town of Emerald Isle, North Carolina while we are having work done on our home in Raleigh.

My husband is staying behind to oversee the work being done, and to work at his job in the Triangle area. However, Katy's Conservative Corner will be back soon. I first have to complete the basic tasks that come with any move, emergency or not.

Once we get settled into a routine, expect daily dispatches on all our regular topics. I'll be heavily covering the North Carolina General Assembly, stopping in personally about once per week. There are a number of bills I'm interested in, along with the bills that we never hear about: those that are introduced but for whatever reason, never make it to the floor for an up or down vote. We'll try to talk about more of those bills this session.

Thanks for being a loyal reader. I look forward to your comments, whether you agree or disagree. As always, commenting is a privilege, and must be on topic. Off-topic, mean-spirited, or those attacking your blogger personally, are never tolerated. I have quite the thick skin, but consider it a matter of honor and policy, not to pay to let someone else attack me. I pay for this blog myself and do not accept advertising. (Occasionally, some kind soul will donate, but that is the only outside support I have ever received.)

April 23, 2008

Linda Daves and the NC GOP have hit another one out of the park! The North Carolina Republican Party has produced an ad (below) linking Barack Hussein Obama's extreme preacher to the Democrats running for NC Governor.

This blogger says "forget it gang". The RNC may be correct on some issues, but this is about North Carolina, and we don't play politically correct games down here.

Both Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore have stuck their fingers in the wind and "endorsed" the America-hating Presidential candidate.

Now, Linda Daves is making them pay. Watch the ad and see for yourself.

If you are a liberal and want to post comments complaining of the age-old claim of "racism", don't even bother. Obama is multi-racial (as is your blogger's husband) and that old junk doesn't work anymore. Martin Luther King, Jr lead us past this more than forty years ago. You folks need to get past it too. Shame on the RNC for kowtowing to these antiquated clowns!

There is nothing wrong with Daves calling it as she sees it and she should not have to be defending these actions from her supposed allies.

The phone is ringing off the hook at NC GOP headquarters and the money is said to be rolling in, but it's not enough. Our party needs more and they need YOUR contribution to get this ad off the Internet and ON THE AIR. Contribute online, here.

The state party is apparently receiving threats, as the Raleigh Police Department has been guarding NC GOP headquarters all day. The doors to the Hillsborough Street building are locked. After the firebombing of the same structure by anarchists a few years back, they've learned to expect the unexpected.

This is making national news and Katy's Conservative Corner has never been more proud to be a North Carolina Republican than today.

UPDATE: Katy's Conservative Corner has obtained an email written by NC Rep. David Lewis, the recently elected national committeeman to the RNC, who told his followers that the ad has been pulled. Your blogger verified this as untrue:

I called the Party’s Chief of Staff Chris McClure and the ad has been pulled.

I guess we will just have to judge the fallout over the next few days.

Update Update- This From state Rep. David Lewis, North Carolina National Committeeman-

Katy,

I made a mistake this morning in responding to a concerned Republican. In fact, I responded before I even saw the ad. I had seen some news coverage of the ad on WRAL but hadn’t seen the whole thing.

I contacted Chris McClure at State Party Headquarters and misunderstood what he told me about the ad. I did not, as I should have, check with Chairman Daves.

I tried too quickly to respond to an email without looking into all the facts.

Chairman Daves has made me aware that the Party will continue running the ad.

I am deeply sorry to have put out incorrect information.

The truth is I have been working on a fund raising event with Vice President Cheney and have not been actively involved with this particular media effort.

I want to do a good job in responding quickly to emails and phone calls and sometimes I am a little too quick.

This miscommunication is absolutely my fault and was not intentional.

I sincerely apologize to everyone who has been inconvenienced by my foul up and am going to try to put out a press release later today to clarify my mistake and that I was not authorized to speak for the Party.

April 09, 2008

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC-5) today announced her co-sponsorship of the Blogger Protection Act of 2008 (H.R. 5699), a bill that safeguards the First Amendment rights of bloggers. The Blogger Protection Act will transform current regulations that protect bloggers’ rights into permanent federal law.

“Bloggers are a vital part of our national dialogue,” Foxx said. “Everyday, countless Americans take part in the political process via the blogosphere—breaking news, checking facts and voicing support or opposition to various candidates. We must ensure their rights are protected.”

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations two years ago to ensure bloggers free speech rights were not infringed upon by certain campaign finance laws. This ruling protected bloggers from misinterpretations of the law. Concerns had been raised that some people might construe bloggers writing about or linking to federal campaigns as a contribution or expenditure on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate.

Additionally, the FEC ruled that blogs should be treated like any other publication under federal campaign laws. Without such protections, bloggers could be subject to various limitations and reporting requirements under campaign finance law. But all of these blogger protections are merely regulatory—they are not in the law and can be changed without congressional action.

“We must not leave the First Amendment rights of bloggers in the hands of the Federal Election Commission,” Foxx said. “Bloggers' rights are too important to leave them to the whims of a panel of federal regulators.”

Note: H.R. 5699 does not alter contribution limits to candidates merely because the contributions are made online. Rather, the bill would turn existing regulations into law. It would protect activities such as bloggers linking to campaign websites and editorializing about candidates and would ensure that these activities are not regarded as contributions to candidates.

For More Information, check out Foxx's Video explaining the issue, below.

April 08, 2008

Katy's Conservative Corner is undergoing a few design changes. The old logo will be back, this week. We want KCC to be easier to read and easier to search. Bear with us.

Additionally, after being away for over a week, due to illness, we have many stories to catch you up on. Please keep checking back, or to subscribe to our RSS feed or have our stories delivered to your e-mail box or your IM account each day. Further, we've installed a widget that makes keeping up with us easier on your smart phone.

February 26, 2008

Honored as I am to have accepted, and having finally added TypePad to the list of circles I've joined, something put off for too long for an Internet Pioneer, I admit to having doubts about what, if anything, I can add that might be original to the conversation. I do so only after having been given the exceptional opportunity to contribute to the work at Katy Benningfield's Conservative Corner.

No jokes from me will you hear evoking Groucho Marx and his too-often quoted reluctance to "join any club that wants me for a member." Katy has proven herself tireless at steady, respectable work in tending the Garden of Truth, and especially in the either too acidic or too base and never balanced soil of North Carolina's dynamic politics. Few others, and I can name one or two at least, have managed to so easily garner an acceptance from me. An fewer others "in a New York Minute."

I qualify my humility at introducting myself here, quoting Dr. Lewis (who died the same day as that conservative cold warrior John F. Kennedy, in 1963 - when I was six years old) from his underappreciated The Screwtape Letters, where the teaching elder demon suggests to his student demon the following course of action as a next step in their eventually failed attempt to subvert "the patient."

"The patient," beloved Uncle Screwtape says, "has become humble. have you reminded him of this fact?"

So, "humbly," I introduce myself as Joel Raupe, a minor player, thought to be somewhat of a loose cannon and certainly unpredictable - a small volcano mistakenly thought dormant usually until the last minute, respected because, it is generally believed by those who don't know me as well as they should, "he's liable to do anything, at anytime, for no particular reason."

In other words, "a white guy," which would also be a mistake. I am "Native American" enough to qualify for federal protection, but would rather sing my Deathsong. Presently, I am gladly at the service of a fourth Republican Leader in the General Assembly since 1999. They were in order, Senator Patrick Ballantine, Senator James Forrester, Senator Phil Berger and Representative Paul "Skip" Stam, each different and above average, excellent friends and good people of better manners and schooling than myself.

I can never be President of the United States because, like Barry Goldwater, I was not born within the United States. I was born in the District of Columbia as part of what the almanacs say is the largest demographic defined by age, by "live births per annum," either before or since.

Whatever else might be said about me, as I pretend to be humble, can be discovered in snippets of truth and some bold lies, here and there, sprinkled around the Internet. But my interests, other than in the good reputation of Republican Members of the General Assembly, may be seen in my WebBlogs.

And the gloriously blank since my broken back-aborted and mercifully brief time as the nominee of my party as their candidate to serve as Representative of District 6 in the North Carolina House of Representatives - http://www.joelraupe.com

I'm a friend of Senator Hugh Webster (R-Alamance), and I like to think a close one, since - like Senator David Hoyle (D-Gaston) and my own Senator Marc Basnight (D-Dare), we shared a house, the "safehaus" as we called it, for two and a half years near Cameron Village - and for its great size, affording us both the pleasure of rarely seeing one another in the morning, we have both confessed eternal gratitude.

That's another good reason for me to celebrate Katy's invitation to contribute to her Blog. The former Senator is scheduled to file and announce his candidacy for the U.S. Congress, at Noon today.

Katy had the exclusive story on his decision to offer himself for the citizens of North Carolina Congressional District 13, and I had the thrill of being able to confirm it by phone. (I have all his numbers. "Access" is a commodity on The Hill.)

I wish him luck, extend my gratitude to Katy once again, and invite you to be at North Carolina Republican Headquarters in Raleigh at "High Noon" to see whether Hugh has succeeded in developing the ability to give a good speech. No one I know looks better on television than he does in person, and I wish him success in all he does. We taxpayers need him. He actually reads the legislation before he votes, you see, and has a better eye for "unintended consequences" than most of the politicians I've ever met. (And I've known quite a few.)

See you there! And, thank you again, Katy. I hope I can live up to the genuinehonor.